Santorum favorite in Kan. caucuses

Rick Santorum is favored to win the Kansas caucuses this weekend, if only by default.

The former Pennsylvania senator’s main rivals have left him pretty much alone to woo the socially conservative voters most likely to turn out for the Sunflower State’s GOP caucus.

Story Continued Below

While Ron Paul is barnstorming the state on Friday, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich both opted to skip last-minute visits to Kansas and instead focus their campaigns on Tuesday’s primaries in Alabama and Mississippi.

“Romney looked at it like Oklahoma — this is all red meat and it’ll be a waste of time,” said former Republican Rep. Todd Tiahrt, a Santorum backer and national GOP committeeman.

Meanwhile, Santorum campaigned in Lenexa, Kan., on Wednesday, the day after he won three states on Super Tuesday and was narrowly defeated by Romney in Ohio. Santorum will return to Kansas on Friday, and his wife, Karen, is slated to speak at caucus meetings on Saturday.

“We have to start anew. … We have to do well here in Kansas — no, we have to win here in Kansas,” Santorum said this week.

Observers in Kansas predict Santorum will win the overall popular vote in the state. They say he will secure the state’s 1st and 4th congressional districts, which cover the state’s western area and Wichita, where he has a campaign office.

That means the former Pennsylvania senator will likely win the bulk of the 40 delegates up for grabs on Saturday.

“This is fertile soil for Santorum,” said Joe Aistrup, a political science professor at Kansas State University. “I think Santorum will rule the day.”

Romney traveled to Mississippi and Alabama at the end of the week, but didn’t campaign in Kansas. In fact, his campaign isn’t planning any public events at all this weekend after the former Massachusetts governor won six states on Super Tuesday — Ohio, Virginia, Vermont, Massachusetts, Alaska and Idaho.

Former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole rallied to Romney’s defense on Thursday, urging Kansans to support Romney in the caucuses and calling him a “man of high standards.” But in an interview Thursday with ABC.com, Dole said that Romney may well lose on Saturday.

“We have a pretty conservative state, probably moderate to conservative, but I hope Romney’s going to win Kansas,” said Dole, the GOP’s 1996 presidential nominee. “But that’s just a hope.”

“I don’t know what the appeal is to Rick,” Dole told ABC. “I mean, he’s a great family man, and he’s certainly a good person, but I don’t see him as a leader. I don’t believe he’s had any real private experience and no position of leadership, well, high leadership in politics.”

Gingrich actually had plans to come to Kansas, but the former House speaker canceled them as part of a broader strategy that stakes the fate of his campaign on a winning streak through the South. That looks like a long shot at this point, however, with a new Alabama poll showing him badly trailing Santorum and Romney there.

“I can promise you it didn’t make him many friends in Kansas,” Mike Egan, an outdoor gear salesman from the Kansas City, Kan., area, said of the former House speaker’s abrupt decision to skip his own events. Egan said he’s still torn between Santorum and Romney.